Okay, as I understand it there is an upcomig fix with users having
individuals having their own ip address; do we have a time frame?
I ask becasue my emails are ALSO not being accepted. I just found
this out when I got a notice from a class I had silgned up for (2x)
sent me a not saying " We haven't heard from you; Sorry you're not
taking the class-- " and other people I had made other plans with
thought I was teribly rude for not being in touch, when I knew the
email left my computer. I'm sure other people also share this issue,
and also don't know whatn it's happened.
elaine
On Friday 23/11/2018 at 9:26 am, Janice Kurkoski wrote:
Thanks Brad, Tim, and David for bringing this to our attention, offering some solutions, AND translating it!
Some of us with traditional "tool boxes" and know how haven't a clue how to fix these invisible problems, or are just plain scared to screw up our devices even further.
Is there someone in town that would be willing to teach folks like us how to "fix" our devices, set up our devices for better, more secure operation, or even make house calls? A group setting or class might also work. I am not suggesting this person do it for free - it is such a valuable skill.
Thanks for Broadband!!
Janice K
On Nov 22, 2018, at 12:48 PM, Bradley W. Compton <bcompton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'll attempt a few answers.
The problem WBS has been having over the past few weeks is probably due to one or more WBS subscribers being (unknowingly) infected with a virus that's sending many thousands of spam emails out over the internet. They've triggered the internet's immune system, and the culprit's IP (internet address) has been blacklisted. The reason this is a problem for all of us is that WBS shares 3 or 4 IPs, so all WBS customers look like the culprit to the rest of the internet, and we're all subject to blacklisting. That's why we keep having to identify stoplights and sometimes can't get to websites. It's probably also why everything has been slow lately.
One might think that this sort of thing only happens to rinky-dink little ISPs....but UMass, with some 30,000 users and a large top-flight IT staff got its emails blacklisted a few weeks ago.
As Tim clearly describes, one solution is to set up a VPN so your computer connects to the internet from somewhere else, so it's not subject to the blacklist.
Another solution would be for all of us to do better with internet security: run virus scans, don't click on links in suspicious emails, use two-factor authentication where possible, use complex passwords and don't reuse the same password across sites...and change our passwords (Jim & Rick: "credentials" is a ten-dollar word for "password"). If we were all perfect, there wouldn't be a problem. Hah.
The proper solution is for WBS to fix this system-wide. From among a few possible solutions, they've decided to go to public IPs, which means we'll all connect to the internet as individuals, and only the spammer(s) will be blacklisted. (This should make it easy to figure out who's infected, too). My understanding is that the move to public IPs is in process, and we'll be finally clear of this in a few weeks.
Louise, your credit card hacks are probably unrelated to the WBS problems, and are due to something you bought over the phone or the internet from some company that either has crappy security or has criminals working for them. That happened to me last spring. It's just a risk of having a credit card and actually using it. As far as I know, the current WBS troubles don't make our network any less secure than before.
As far as fiber optics go, the Broadband Committee and Selectboard decided 2 or 3 years ago that it would be far too expensive for Warwick (the cost is mostly per road-mile, so at our low density, it would cost a lot per subscriber--far, far more than we pay now, even with the state subsidies). We voted at Town Meeting a couple of years ago to allow WBS to borrow $250k to do an upgrade to a faster, more robust, and more comprehensive wireless network. We got a grant of $450k from the state (MBI) to help with this project, and it's been ongoing the past couple of years. The 60-foot relay poles you see around town are part of this upgrade. The upgrade is ongoing, and has taken longer than expected (as one might expect). The goal is to provide everyone in town with robust wireless internet that's considerably faster than what most of us see now.
David & others: please correct me if I got any of this wrong.
Brad Compton
Broadband Committee
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